Corey Dickstein/Bryan County Now Army Spc. Jeremy Wagner, a Military Policeman at Hunter Army Airfield, right, and Sgt. Arron Hill, a soldier with the 416th Transportation Company, talk Friday afternoon about events that led up to them rescueing a woman from a burning housing unit on the installation Tuesday evening. The dog, Pickles, HIll is holding was also in the home at the time of the fire.

Corey Dickstein/Bryan County Now After receiving a call about smoke pouring out of a housing unit on Hunter Army Airfield on Tuesday evening Army Spc. Jeremy Wagner, a Military Police soldier with Hunter's Garrison, helped rescue a woman from the building behind him.

In the minutes before Hunter Army Airfield firefighters arrived at the scene of a burning housing unit Tuesday evening, a group of soldiers worked together to save a life.

“These guys risked their lives and did the right thing,” said Will Shanholtzer, deputy fire chief for Fort Stewart and Hunter Army Airfield. “The work they did saved this woman’s life. There’s no doubt about it. These guys are heroes.”

While Army Spc. Jeremy Wagner, a Military Police Officer assigned to Hunter’s Garrison, arrived on the scene after receiving a call from neighbors, two other soldiers helped in the rescue effort.

As Wagner worked to enter the building, Sgt. Arron Hill, who lives next door to the Gannam Avenue unit that was involved, and Pfc. Johnathan Cordona, who was in a nearby park with his son, rushed toward the home to offer help.

“I could hear downstairs that they were knocking on the door next door,” Hill said. “I saw a lot of smoke.”

Already, Wagner — a 6-foot-6, 335-pound former college football offensive lineman — had made his way into the building.

“When I got on scene, I could hear the dog barking inside, so I thought there was a good chance there could be a person in there, too,” Wagner said. “At that point the adrenaline kicked in.

“I kicked in the door — it was like a toothpick — and I got sucked into the house by the backdraft.”

Wagner called out as he searched the bottom floor of the two-story home, but no one answered. After returning outside for air, Wagner re-entered the house that was quickly filling with smoke.

There was no question his neighbor — whose name Hunter officials are not releasing — was in the building, Hill said.

“I knew she was in there,” the sergeant said. “I guess I wasn’t thinking. I was nervous. I was scared; I thought she was hurt.”

After a couple of unsuccessful rescue attempts, Hill finally heard a voice coming from up the stairs.

“She was at the top of the steps, so Spc. Wagner, Pfc. (Cordona) and I ran up there and grabbed her and got her out of there,” Hill said. “There was a lot of black smoke going up the steps, but I heard her up there so we just ran up as quick as we could, got her and got out of there before (we) got burned.”

The woman and the soldiers were all taken to Memorial University Medical Center and treated for smoke inhalation from the fire that Shanholtzer blamed on unattended cooking. The soldiers and the woman have all been released from the hospital.

“It’s one of those things where we don’t want to encourage people to run into the building, we’d rather them call 911,” Shanholtzer said. “But these guys are heroes, if they were five minutes later, there would have been a lot more smoke and when Spc. Wagner kicked in that door he would have been blown backward into the street.

“What they did saved the woman’s life. It’s a lot better to have to take a few people to Memorial for some minor injuries than what could have happened.”

Once on scene, the deputy fire chief added, firefighters contained the fire to the unit and put it out in about three minutes.

The soldiers said they would risk their lives to enter the building again and hoped others would do the same if they were trapped inside.

“You don’t really think about it,” Hill said. “I think that's just who I am. And also being a soldier, the training, I think, helped a lot.”

Although fires in housing units on post are pretty rare, Shanholtzer said, they pick up this time of year.

“The unattended cooking like in this one and unattended candles, those are the big ones that we see,” he said. “People need to pay attention to those kind of things. Those and space heaters are a lot of times the culprit.”

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